I Officially Begin Writing MERLIN’S SHADOW
Merlin’s blade is gone. Whither has it gone? You’ll have to read book one to find out. You have a guess, you say? You may be right in your guess, but the question is HOW does it happen? And why? And what will be the result?
(S.D. Smith, you’re not allowed to answer these questions! Shhhhh… )
Either way, I have composted my plot for book two to the point that I can now officially begin growing words from its fertile soil! I had previously authored three scenes, and these put me already at a nice 3% toward my goal.
What are my expectation for this book? While my last book finished out at a bloated 154,000 words before I sliced it down to 120,000, this book will be purposefully slimmer. Using my writing plan and log, I calculate:
| Total Words: | 88,000 |
| Total Pages: | 370 |
| Total Chapters: | 33 |
| Total Number Of Scenes: | 99 |
| Half-way Point Expected On: | Sep 10, 2009 |
| Calculated Finish Date: | Dec 10, 2009 |
That should help me keep my manuscript to a reasonable length! If my imagination pushes it up around 100,000 words, that would be great.
As time goes on, you’ll be able to check my progress in the sidebar.
So the question for this new book is this: What exactly is Merlin’s Shadow? There is actually more than one answer to this question, which is what makes the book’s title so appropriate. Here’s a hint for one of the answers:
Who is this you ask? (No, it’s not Merlin.) Despite the ferocity and pure evil of this picture that I have imagined and created, this is not a book filled with horror. My goal is that when you read this book—you will weep. Weep at the horror that man can stoop to. Weep at the depth of evil in our own hearts.
The nice thing about writing again, is that tomorrow will be exactly one year to the day from when I finished draft 1 of Merlin’s Blade!
That means I spent an entire year editing. That may seem long, but being my first book, I had a lot to learn. This new book, with the Lord’s help and favor, should be decidedly faster in both writing and editing.
Off to my inkpot!